The present invention relates generally to electronic measurement and display apparatus, and in particular to a method and apparatus for simulating voltage and current measurements and displaying the results in a single digital display.
The conventional method of monitoring the output voltage and current values of an electronic power supply apparatus is simply by using external digital multimeters or the like to provide the measurement and display. More sophisticated precision power supplies have digital multimeters built in so as to provide a continuous monitoring and display of the output values. In both instances, two meters are required for each supply in order to measure both voltage and current. It is particularly desirable to have such continuous monitoring in an auto crossover power supply because the output switches automatically from a voltage-supplying mode to a current-supplying mode, and vice versa, under certain conditions of the load, such as the impedance changing in a dynamic fashion or malfunctions and fault occurrences. However, the inclusion of digital multimeters is not attractive in terms of space requirements, power consumption, and cost.